BMEM 1143

WEEK 2
URBAN HIERARCHY AND URBAN
GROWTH
THEORIES OF URBAN
GROWTH
 Economic Base Theory
 Basic activities – producing goods for outside demand
 Non basic activities – producing goods for local demand
 Increased in basic activities will increase labors and will
increase income leading to urban growth
 In-put and Out-put Analysis
 The relations among industries – where do they get input
materials and where do they market their output
 The Keynesian Model
 Relations between national economy and urban economy
where changes of total income in urban area will results in
changes in its level of business
Advantages and
Disadvantages of Urban
Growth
 Advantages
 Specialization
 Large scale production
 Complementary between activities
 General external economy of agglomeration
 Economies in the use of public services
 Disadvantages
 Higher transport cost
 Traffic congestion
 Increased pollution
Urban Sprawl and
Overspill Policies
 Problems of Urban Sprawl
 Transport Improvement
 Improve communication
 Ribbon development
 Expanding towns – corridors/conurbation
 To control urban sprawl through the Overspill
Policy
 Green Belt
 New Towns
 Expanded town
URBAN GROWTH

 Urban Hierarchy and Central

Place Theory
 Overspill
 New Towns
Urban Hierarchy and
Central Place Theory
 Concepts
 W Christaller 1933
 Factors determine the location and trading
 Economies of large scale operations
 The existence of transport costs
Urban Hierarchy and
Central Place Theory
Urban Hierarchy and
Central Place Theory
 Reilly’s Law of Retail Gravitation
 (W. J. Reilly. 1929)
 The outer limits of

 Town A = Miles of road to adjacent town B

 + Population of Town B
 Population of City A
Urban Hierarchy and
Central Place Theory

Town A Town B
Central Place Theory

 Rank size rule

 Population of Town X =
 Population of the Largest City
 Rank of Town X